McDonald’s sends kids to the Olympics

Fast food giant McDonald’s Australia has worked with media agency OMD Fuse Sydney to send the winners of a competition to the 2012 London Olympics.

The initiative is part of McDonald’s global Champions of Play campaign, which is supported by a microsite, in partnership with NineMSN.

The six winners were picked from 2000 entries and to demonstrate the values of play (confidence, fair Play, team work and resilience).

Another part of the campaign involved a community event held outside of Brisbane, at which five Queensland sports clubs competed in a mini-Olympics. The winning club got a $10,000 grant to help pay for equipment.
The local activation of the campaign will feature on McDonald’s Youtube. The Champions of Play competition will be screened as a documentary series about the kids who entered the competition. The documentary will be used as a TVC.

I’m sorry but I’m not feeling this.
This is just pure exploitation of children in my humble opinion and as for those four values, where did they come from? It is not a fact when you say ‘it is said’.
Apart from the very contrived nature of the whole event, the proposition that McDonalds is the champion of play is a big stretch for me, not grounded in any product truth or brand offering, apart from cash, either through prize money or sponsorship of the olympics that is.
Maybe it is because I can see straight through the hole left where brand planning should be but this actually makes be sad for our industry. It takes us back 20 years.